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Blogging Dead: Chaos, a new infection and hard, cold truths of despair

By Brad Milner | News Herald Writer

Published: Sunday, October 20, 2013 at 11:03 PM.

We have old Rick back and that could be good or bad depending on your outlook. Let’s see how this goes.

We wrap up to find Karen and another infected cellmate burned to a crisp outside of A Block. Tyreese finds Karen’s remains and is shocked while holding flowers he picked for her. He wants justice and maybe he’ll get it next week.

Quick thoughts:

Michonne has an aversion to baby Judith, but this is likely because she had to leave behind a child or two of her own. We don’t know much of her back story and this was a nice glimpse into her past. But didn’t the baby look freaked by Michonne’s boo-hooing? While not intentional, of course because it’s a baby and all, it was still off-putting for the emotional impact of the scene…

Lizzie was more attached to a Walker than her father. Mika points out to Carol that Lizzie is “messed up.” Yes, she is, but maybe she can find a sounding board and stability with Carol, who promised to take care of the girls…

I doubt we’ve seen the last of the flu despite killing the pigs and burning the pen…

Who’s feeding the Walkers? Whoever it is at least has a working flashlight, unlike Karen…

In the second episode of “The Walking Dead” we’re reminded of the fact that life changes during the zombie apocalypse and no matter how much you want to hide from it you can’t escape the harsh truths that are presented. Rick learned this, as we saw another shift in the former leader of the prison dwellers. Two children, Lizzie and Mika, learned this as well as Tyreese, who just wanted to check on his ill girlfriend only to find a devastating surprise.

We begin with Patrick meandering from the showers to the D Block where he dines on another character who we didn’t have an attachment to so we’ll call him Combo Meal 3. The sun rises and farmer Rick and son Carl are discussing the proper way to get added nutrients to the pigs with the father suggesting worms as the solution. We hear bangs and folks running for help from D Block where Patrick and Combo Meal 3 turned others into Walkers.

Rick, fine-haired Daryl and Glenn, among others, clean house in D Block. It’s later surmised that a flu outbreak has aggressively worked its way through the prison — pigs and birds are blamed (swine flu as I pointed out last week!) — and the fear grows. The council met, complete with an awesome table piece, and decide they should quarantine some in A Block and steer clear of D Block and those who weren’t around the area.

This includes Tyreese’s girl, Karen, who had a nice hacking cough before being whisked away to Infectedville. Sadness ensues in a few minutes.

Earlier in the episode we find someone has been feeding Walkers rats to cause the influx of them along the prison fences. The problem becomes almost too much to overcome, the fence giving way, and Rick makes the call to use the pigs as bait so they can fortify the fence.

For me this was the most emotional moment of the episode, even more so than when the kids had to say goodbye to their Dad before Carol shoved a knife in his head to avoid his turning. The pigs were potential flu carriers, but this didn’t soothe Rick, who built a new life around the livestock and his gardening. A blood-soaked Rick went back to his previous ways at the end of the episode.

He realized that there was nothing that could be done to stave off the despair, at least not for long, and his days of less stress and no decision-making weren’t in the cards. Rick, who Daryl implored to take the lead again, returns Carl’s gun. Rick also dons his gun belt and checks his revolver for ammunition.

We have old Rick back and that could be good or bad depending on your outlook. Let’s see how this goes.

We wrap up to find Karen and another infected cellmate burned to a crisp outside of A Block. Tyreese finds Karen’s remains and is shocked while holding flowers he picked for her. He wants justice and maybe he’ll get it next week.

Quick thoughts:

Michonne has an aversion to baby Judith, but this is likely because she had to leave behind a child or two of her own. We don’t know much of her back story and this was a nice glimpse into her past. But didn’t the baby look freaked by Michonne’s boo-hooing? While not intentional, of course because it’s a baby and all, it was still off-putting for the emotional impact of the scene…

Lizzie was more attached to a Walker than her father. Mika points out to Carol that Lizzie is “messed up.” Yes, she is, but maybe she can find a sounding board and stability with Carol, who promised to take care of the girls…

I doubt we’ve seen the last of the flu despite killing the pigs and burning the pen…

Who’s feeding the Walkers? Whoever it is at least has a working flashlight, unlike Karen…

Now every cough and sniffle will be Code Red. I’m sure there will be a lot of teasing, too. Daryl might do some extra farmer’s blows and worry millions of female fans in the coming weeks…

You have to wonder if living with little happiness is worth it in these times. There are a lot of hardened characters — Carol, Beth, Daryl, Rick, Carl, soon Tyreese, whose cheerful attitude is likely gone — and a lot of sadness. It makes sense given the situation, it’s just difficult to take sometimes as a viewer.